Making the difference - Investing in African entrepreneurs

by Lucian Croitoru on 10th January, 2011 at 4:26 PM CEST

Today we follow up Lucian Croitoru's story, C:F Competition semifinalist, Summit participant and Quick Challengewinner. He had an idea of helping African entrepreneurs and investing in their ideas by offering them microloans. - C:F Team

Last year our community was challenged to come up with a solution regarding the best way to use 50 EUR for common good. As one of the lucky winners of that quick challenge, I made two microloans on the Kiva website in order to cover a part of the requested loans of two entrepreneurs in Africa: Fumi Adediran from Nigeria and Adjo Akoyi from Togo. You can find more information about their story here.

Today I am happy to announce that up until now, Fumi Adediran managed to pay back the entire loan to its lenders, while Adjo Akoyi is doing well managing to pay back more than half of the loan.

With the money which I was given back by the two entrepreneurs I made a new loan. This time, my loan went to a woman from Kenya called Margaret Mutai. She requested a loan on the Kiva website in order to purchase and insure a dairy cow. The extra income obtained from the sale of milk will enable expand her existing business and also pay school fees for her children. She hopes that in five years' time, her milk productivity will have increased and prices will have stayed stable as they are at the moment.

"Margaret, 47, is married with 4 children aged between 12 and 24. Two of the children are currently attending school. She is a farmer from the town of Kitale in western Kenya where she has been farming for twenty years and employs one farmhand. Her mixed farm produces milk, maize, eggs and beans which she sells locally. She is also a tailor." [More info]

As said before microloans have a repayment rate of over 95%. I have already helped 3 entrepreneurs to change their future and to shape their destiny. With the 50 EUR I got from Challenge:Future I was able to change the lives of 3 people and at the current repayment rate I will be able to help up to 40 households to permanently increase their incomes.

Just think if each one of us would contribute with as little as 25$ to help people achieve their dreams. To you might not seem such a big sum of money, for some means the difference between living in poverty and having access to food, basic goods, education, a new beginning. I encourage each one of you to go on the website, search for an entrepreneur and make his dream come true. It is a simple and practical way of making the difference.

Lucian

"Kiva's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending. Kiva works with existing microfinance institutions around the world to provide loans to entrepreneurs who don't have access to the traditional banking system. Kiva provides 100% of your loan funds to these microfinance institutions, which they call Field Partners, who administer Kiva loans in the field." - Kiva website

Some people spend a fortune on buying unnecessary things over the Internet, rather than to help and that at least a portion of your money set aside to help someone, but still most people are selfish and prefer a bunch of wealth instead of sharing. The idea of my team is just to awaken in people and humanity to finally give in and not just take.